(Master Comics 007, 1940)
Let's start with the good things about the Sea-Devil: he's part of one of my favourite super-villain traditions: the guy who dresses up like a creature in order to play off of local superstitions. Nothing specific in this case - he's just banking on the local oyster divers not wanting to contend with a mysterious horned humanoid while they're trying to earn an already dangerous living. To that end, his costume isn't the most elaborate fake sea monster in comics, though it does have a certain minimalist charm.
The rest of the story is depressingly familiar. The Sea-Devil is a guy named Sam Mindoro, his motivation is to drive off the white guy who owns his ancestral lands and of course this makes him the worst kind of villain despite him not actually killing anyone while disrupting the extraction of wealth from the area. I mean he does try to kill Shipwreck Roberts and Deep Sea Doodle, which is a crime, but "wants his land back" and "inconveniences a white guy" are treated as much worse ones. Depressing stuff.
ADDENDUM: Forgot to mention that this fellow is our first Filipino super-villain, for what it's worth.
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